Respecting this ascent, Arago states that M. Gay-Lussac has
reduced to their proper value the narratives of the physical
pains which aeronauts say they suffer in lofty aerial ascents.
M. Gay-Lussac says:--"Having arrived at the most elevated point
of my ascent, 21,000 feet above sea level, my respiration was
rendered sensibly difficult, but I was far from experiencing any
illness of a kind to make me descend. My pulse and my breathing
were very quick; breathing very frequently in an extremely dry
atmosphere, I should not have been surprised if my throat had
been so dry as to make it painful to swallow bread."
After having finished his observations, which referred chiefly to
the magnetic needle, with all the tranquillity of a doctor in his
study, Gay-Lussac descended to the earth between Rouen and
Dieppe, eighty leagues from Paris.
After the names of Robertson, Gay-Lussac, and Biot, science has
registered those of Barral and Bixio, two men whose aeronautic
achievements have enriched meteorology with more important
discoveries, perhaps, than any we have yet mentioned.
These gentlemen had conceived the project of rising by means of a
balloon to a great height, in order to study, with the assistance
of the very best instruments in use in their day, a multitude of
phenomena then imperfectly known.
Pages:
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223